The Ice
by fallingthrough11
Summary: Sasuke returns to Konoha, but it’s different somehow – perhaps he can’t get over his older brother until he’s seen him for one last time. Limey?. SasukeItachi.
1. The Ice

**(AN: This is set after chapter 490 (me thinks?), there are two parts, aka two chapters. The latter of which is not complete yet. Enjoy ^\_/^**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, but I wish I did. :P)**

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_The Ice_

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It was the day Sasuke returned to Konoha, finally, after everything.

No one knew he was back yet. He had snuck in late in the middle of the night. It had been a mission in itself to get from the _through _the gates of Konoha, let alone to the Uchiha part of town – which he hoped was still derelict – but Sasuke was possibly one of the best ninja alive. He would make it alright. He thought he had seen a head of silver hair, cast in the glow of a streetlamp – had it been Kakashi making his way home from somewhere? Somehow Sasuke hadn't wanted to know. He alone was a even though he didn't look it, he felt like a wound in need of healing. He didn't think he could handle the backlash the Hokage would give him when he was sighted – he was a criminal in their eyes. Even though it had been his _plan_, the plan he had followed right from the beginning: '_And there is a certain someone I have sworn to kill_…'

It was the middle of winter and had been snowing for three days. His fingers were numb and his nose was streaming, but he kept on running from rooftop to rooftop. Sasuke knew the rooftops of Konoha so well he needn't even think about it.

He shot past the empty training ground, a darkened Ichiraku ramen stand, and was approaching the street down which he needed to turn to get to the Uchiha complex. It was then that it happened.

At first it looked like a post, but then as Sasuke neared it, he realised with horror that it was someone balanced on the top of a fence, a figure staring straight at him.

Sasuke immediately assumed that it was ANBU, that they had been onto him ever since he had crossed the borders. Whoever they were they were not moving, and for some reason Sasuke moved on ahead to approach them face-to-face.

Like two things lost and in search of reconciliation, the two stared at each other in understanding – Sasuke and Kisame.

He stopped on a fence post far away from Kisame, but close enough so that they could talk.

Sasuke was now fully conscious of his nose running, he must have had snot like streams trailing across his face. But Kisame seemed distracted enough not to notice. _Why_ now of all times? Sasuke thought. Surely the shark-man had more important things to do?

'Kisame? Of all the people I expected …'

'I know, kid.' Kisame said. There was a notable change in him – his shoulder were slouched in a way that didn't quite fit his height. It looked as if he was either exhausted or … ill. 'But there's a reason for my being here, a reason that's more important than …' he breathed heavily, '… my _life_.'

Sasuke observed Kisame for a long moment. For some reason he knew – whatever it was – it was something that wouldn't easily be put into a sentence.

'Come back with me,' Sasuke offered bluntly.

Kisame looked grateful, but still ferocious. He lugged _samehada _over his shoulder and leapt a few paces behind Sasuke.

On their way, thoughts raced through Sasuke mind. Uchiha Madara was still out there, somewhere in the world. Himself and Kisame were the only two who had broken free of his throng and were still alive. It was a two-on-two now, if anything. Sasuke and Kisame against Madara and Zetsu. But the most each knew of the other was that they had become nomad.

Sasuke had broken off of Madara just after Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo died – they were used as puppets, toys at a pitiless dispense on their last united mission. They had all been too blind to see it before now. Contrary to Madara's belief, Sasuke was not wound round his little finger. Despite everything Sasuke realised he harboured a will of fire as strong as his brothers'. However, he still held his brother as the more important thing against Konoha.

Also, Sasuke had almost come to expect that anything to do with Kisame inevitably had something to do with Itachi. So when he saw Kisame there was little doubt in his mind as to what he was there for. Even if death it seemed Itachi still lived on.

The pair reached the Uchiha complex swiftly and silently. Not wanting to be seen walking the streets, Sasuke sped across the stone paths quickly and made it to his house in record time, barely taking in his surroundings. Kisame followed.

The door was unlocked, as he had expected. Once they were inside, they moved through the back of the house, and Sasuke led the shark-man into the dark kitchen. It was the room that had the lowest chance of anyone peering into, as the window looked out onto a wall, beyond which was thick forest.

He lit a lamp, emanating a soft orange glow. It was good enough. A dim light wouldn't attract attention; if anyone saw that a window was suddenly alight in the Uchiha complex then he wouldn't have _minutes_ before they came for him.

Though the kettle had a layer of dust sitting on it, as did everything, it still worked. After riffling in a few derelict cupboards Sasuke found a box of un-opened tea bags that were still in date. His family had been an avid tea drinker, but now he couldn't care less about the beverage – it would be something he and Kisame could hold in their hands, saved from awkwardness. Ninja were not the best of talkers, they tended to communicate through fighting after all.

Kisame slumped down into a wooden chair and leaned back like a dead man. Sasuke eyed him from the corner of his eye, the sound of the kettle heating up, and wondered vaguely if Kisame had just died. Sasuke threw a couple of tea bags into some wiped-out mugs and Kisame didn't move for a long time. Even when Sasuke finished making the tea, and he plonked the drink in front of the man so that it spilled a little bit, Kisame's finger only twitched.

Sasuke huffed. He sat down across the table, a fair distance away. He looked around at his old house and felt an odd emotion creep about him. It was one he had no memory of experiencing before – and if he had it had been crushed down immediately. Now that everything was over and done with Sasuke was a lost person. He didn't know how to look on his home.

Breaking him from his musings was a terrible groan, followed by a thunderous snort. Kisame shot upright in his chair, a hand massaging the back of his neck. He grinned bearishly, and cleared his throat.

'Er, thanks for the tea,' he said.

Sasuke grunted.

'I guess I should get on and try to tell you …' Kisame looked uncertain. They sat for a while in silence, while Kisame pressed his fingers to his temples in what looked like an overt display of thinking. Sasuke waited patiently for him to find words good enough.

'Okay, so I'll start like this,' Kisame began. 'Over the years, Itachi put aside a little bit of his chakra every day,' he explained. 'As he became ill, he couldn't afford to put away as much, so really, his project was left half-finished. But – I keep my promises,' he said proudly.

'What are you talking about?'

'Well …' Here Kisame looked seriously at Sasuke, and whether or not the boy understood, he listened. 'Itachi meant more to me than any of the Akatsuki, in fact, I considered him family. And I've never had family. He meant the world to me. And you meant the world to him.'

'Did…' Sasuke faltered for a moment, still unsure. '…Did _you_ know the truth?'

At that the corner of Kisame's mouth quirked upwards into a lop-sided smirk. 'Yeah,' he growled, looking strangely pleased. 'Itachi wasn't the only one with secret intentions.'

'So, you helped my brother … even though you knew he was still loyal to …'

Kisame nodded.

Kisame withdrew from his inside pocket a lump of folded material. It was deep-red, like the colour of blood. Giving Sasuke a quick glance, he placed it on the table between them. He seemed awkward for an instant, as if he didn't know what to do next. He planted a blue finger and thumb onto the fold of the material, making to open it, but then he stopped. He let go of the fold and, instead, with the palm of his hand pushed the lump of material closer along the table towards Sasuke.

Sasuke's breath was coming in quick succession, and he tried his best to control himself. But he could still feel his heart beating in his throat.

Carefully, Sasuke unfolded it, and inside lay a small, fragile-looking object. It glinted in the soft light – golden. On picking it up, Sasuke discovered it was a crudely-made glass flower. It had a thin stem and drooping petals; the allusion would have meant nothing to anyone but Sasuke – it was a miniature copy of the things that grew so profusely in their garden. It was the flower that never seemed to bloom anywhere else but that patch of grass next to the pond, where he and Itachi would often sit for hours reading or playing shogi or just talking.

Sasuke didn't know what he had been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been _that_. He felt utterly freezing. He wasn't particularly cold, but he was freezing on the inside. It was that kind of feeling. Now Sasuke was transfixed by it.

'What is this? Why now?' Sasuke asked. 'Why now? Why …?'

Kisame looked content. 'Simple. I didn't want Madara getting his hands on it. It was possibly the one thing he knew nothing about, and possibly the one thing he still knows nothing about.'

'Do you think he'll come after us?' Sasuke suddenly asked.

Kisame shrugged. 'It's hard to say. But whatever comes our way, kid, we'll have some peaceful time before it does. I intend to make the most of it.'

Sasuke didn't know what else he could do, so he smiled. It was a weak smile, but it still managed to let Kisame know he was grateful. If this was the _real _Kisame, the one Itachi had known, then the man was strangely heart-warming.

'What am I supposed to do with it?'

'You'll realise soon enough.'

Kisame stood up, his cup drained of tea.

'I must go. When they find you, you don't want to be with me. One S-Class criminal may be handled easily, while two – the ANBU might get a bit tetchy and kill one of us straight away.'

Sasuke noticed the irony of _when _and not _if_. It made his stomach wrench.

'Whatever.'

The shark man was clearly exhausted, but Sasuke didn't argue. If Kisame stayed the night in one of the spare rooms it would be difficult for him to leave in the morning. By leaving now he was guaranteed his life.

Kisame's tall figure turned about, and began trudging towards the window, _samehada_ slung across his back.

'Thank you,' Sasuke called before the man could leave. For him to _say_ thank you meant a lot more than most people would realise.

Kisame froze for a second and, not looking back, he held a hand up in acknowledgement. 'Later,' he said gruffly, before opening the window and darting out into the night.

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~fin part 1.

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(AN: I promise, part two is where Itachi enters! ^___^)


	2. The Sunshine

_The Sunshine_

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It was the next morning. Sasuke was woken up early; he hadn't slept well at all except the first few hours where it was induced through sheer exhaustion.

He saw the flower on top of his chest of drawers, on the blood-red material. He hadn't been able to figure out what it meant ... Surely Itachi hadn't used his chakra simply to make a glass flower? It must mean something more than that.

But if anything Sasuke was determined.

He picked up the glass flower and held it in his hand - if it was chakra-based surely it would activate if he channeled a little of his own chakra into it?

_But then what would happen?_ he wondered.

Regardless, he concentrated until he felt a small surge of warmth emanate from his fingers.

As he expected nothing happened.

Sighing, he replaced it on the material. _What the hell had Kisame been talking about?_ _Itachi's dead and he's not coming back._

He shuffled in the kitchen, overcome by how every room felt cold and empty. Dust was everywhere and, to top it off, things were still lying around from where they had last been put down – there was a half-finished shogi game on the table in the living room, kunai and an opened polishing kit in the middle of the floor that he made sure to walk all the way around, and a book lying face-down on the side. It was one of Itachi's. He tried to ignore it.

Even if he cleaned the house there was no guarantee that he would be able to stay there. How long would it be until people discovered that he had returned? He was a missing-nin and punishable by death.

Slinking over to the only working thing of remote comfort – the kettle – he started to make another simple cup of tea. No milk. No sugar. He preferred juice anyway.

It was as he was sipping his scalding tea, shuffling lazily towards the doors that opened onto the veranda, when he heard it. Remotely there was the sound of footsteps.

At first he naturally thought it was a figment of his imagination, and didn't give it a second thought as he slid open the door. The brilliant sunlight shone inside, casting a long rectangle of light onto the foot-printed floorboards. Sasuke closed his eyes and leant in the doorframe, sipping.

Then he heard it again. His eyes snapped open. He looked over his shoulder.

'Who's there?' he asked in a solid voice. _I should have known it wouldn't last …_ _ANBU have come for me …_

Initially, Sasuke saw nothing or no one. His eyes hovered over the shadows – that's where they'd be hiding – and soon enough he saw the outline of what could be the very edge of a face looking out from the archway that lead to the other side of the house and his bedroom. That part of the hallway was entirely in shadow and the face moved out ever so slightly. There was bang of hair, a head, then an arm emerged, hanging at the person's side limply; they appeared cloaked, a high-necked cloak … then a leg stepped out, and before Sasuke knew it the person was standing there in the archway, a half-dark silhouette.

Then the person opened their eyes. Two blood-red orbs stared at him, eyes that were painfully familiar both in his reflection and his memory.

The first words that spilled from Sasuke's mouth were: 'Explain! How are you alive? I watched you die! I -- I_ killed you_ -- !'

Was this some kind of trick? Sasuke wasn't one to handle shock – no, he wasn't one to handle _emotion_. Full stop. His chest felt constricted as if it was caged in ice. It hurt to breathe as if he couldn't get enough oxygen, he breathed in and in and in …

The next thing he was aware of was the blurry room sliding across his view and the floor suddenly becoming closer and closer. His older brother reached his side in time and held Sasuke before he could hit the floorboards. His drink, however, went everywhere and the mug ended up outside, in a puddle of its previous contents.

'Breathe, Sasuke, breathe,' said Itachi.

Sasuke barely comprehended the words, he only saw his brother's lips moving as if in slow motion, hardly able to comprehend that this was _real_ …

'I–I–!' Sasuke tried. 'I can take care of myself!'

'No. I don't think so.'

In the past Sasuke had hated everything and everyone and it had all been because of Itachi. Hatred had been the colour of his world. But hate and love, especially between these two brothers, was perhaps made of the same matter.

'Is it really you ... aniki?'

Sasuke reached up a hand to Itachi's face and the tips of his two fingers contacted with the lower part of Itachi's cheek. It was solid. His _aniki_ was really here. His fingers lingered there, softly touching the skin, but they felt burning with fire.

'Do you believe I'm here now?'

'Tell me … tell me _how_ …'

'My being here means that you know the truth.'

Itachi paused for a moment, his face unfathomable. Sasuke's fingers fell and he listened to the sound of his brother's voice and felt it resonate in his chest. It was somehow like old times.

'I owe you an explanation. I told Kisame I wanted to do it, and not he. I am merely a clone. I stored a reserve of chakra like Tsunade does in the diamond in her forehead, but instead I used _this_,' Itachi slid his hand in his pocket and pulled out the glass flower, turning it between his fingers so that it glittered in the fragmented light, making patterns on his face. 'As Tsunade's chakra is used for healing, my chakra reserve was for a clone that would materialise when _you_ called it. Kisame was the only one I could trust to look after it – but I told him not to give it to you unless you knew the _truth_. I wanted to keep you away from Madara, but this was my backup plan if ever he got to you after my death. So you awakened me with that little bit of chakra. And now I'm here, Sasuke.'

'How long?' he asked bluntly.

'I'm sorry, Sasuke,' he said quietly. 'I'm only here for forty-eight hours, at the most.'

'T-two days?' he choked.

Itachi nodded.

Rolling over, Sasuke faced the floor and breathed in deeply.

'Okay, okay,' he said in a muffled voice. 'We need to do something _now_.'

Itachi smirked. If he was surprised he didn't show it. Sasuke sat up, and Itachi helped pull him to his feet. Without speaking one word, the younger Uchiha brother maneuvered around the living room, and spent about five minutes collecting items into one of his mother's old wicker boxes. The shogi board and pieces. A number of books that he remembered Itachi was particularly fond of reading - they were all on the same shelf in the bookcase, right where they had been left all that time ago.

Itachi followed wordlessly, watching his younger brother with interest.

Then they went outside, and the quiet of the house was replaced with the sound of the breeze and the birds and the trickling of a water fountain. It filled the silence and blocked the void ... the loneliness. Sasuke didn't even want to think what it would like when Itachi left again.

He remembered the last time they had done this – in fact almost every weekend when it wasn't raining Sasuke would bug Itachi until his older brother gave in and carried out a box of books and – sometimes – a shogi board. They would sit outside for hours, reading and joking, talking and laughing - just being who they were, stripped of ninja-identity completely. Underneath they were two pretty plain ordinary boys who didn't care nor like very much, but at the same time held other things in the highest and fondest of regard - like each other.

Almost immediately, Sasuke sensed Itachi stopping. He turned around and waited patiently, a worried expression on his face. Itachi was smiling wistfully.

'What's wrong?' he asked gently.

'Nothing,' Itachi replied.

With the box under one arm, Sasuke held out his free hand. Itachi looked at it for a long moment as if he was indecisive.

Not giving him any other option, Sasuke reached out and grabbed Itachi's hand, entwining their fingers, before dragging him along.

They walked on until they reached a field far from the back of the house. The Uchiha complex could barely be seen as a diminutive mass of roofing over the tip of a grassy hilltop. Konoha seemed miles away.

_Doesn't Shikamaru often visit here to watch the clouds? _Sasuke thought vaguely. _But I've been away for so long ... it doesn't look like anyone comes here anymore. I don't even know if Shikamaru is still alive. I don't know if anyone is still alive._

Sasuke emptied the box and Itachi watched from the corner of his eye. The books splayed out so that they could choose whichever they wanted, and the shogi board lay there just to look at – they didn't really intend to play. They were both compulsive cheaters.

'We haven't done this in a long while,' said Sasuke. The breeze blew his hair in front of his face and he fingered it behind his ear. 'Actually ... I didn't think we'd ever get to do this again.'

'No …' agreed Itachi. 'But we're here now. This was our routine,' he said fondly, then asked in a rhetorical air: 'Do you remember what usually happens next?'

All of a sudden the space between them had disappeared and Itachi dragged Sasuke down, so that the younger's head was resting in his lap. He leant down so that their faces were incredibly close – his eyes reading every detail, reading all of the change.

It didn't escape Sasuke's notice that Itachi's lips were parted ever so slightly. Being the impulsive one, Sasuke took the plunge before Itachi could realise what was happening. He had asked for it.

Sasuke threw his lips to the skin between Itachi's upper lip and nose. Then, when Itachi didn't move or object, Sasuke moved his lips down gently and teasingly so that they touched the corner of his lips. He kept them there for a long moment, fully aware that Itachi should have thrown him off by now. Even though they had done this a few times before it was a rare thing for Itachi to be completely willing. But he didn't care, he was asking for entrance and knew inner-turmoil was weak.

'What if people see?' Itachi asked. He said it in the kind of tone that suggested he didn't _care_ if people saw, but at the same time he cared if Sasuke cared - after all it was he who had to face the village in the end. Itachi would disappear. He was asking with the full intention of getting an answer; he wanted Sasuke to decide what he truly wanted.

'You haven't changed,' said Sasuke. 'Not that I expected you to. Your eyes still light up the same.'

Itachi felt a blush creep into his cheeks and knew Sasuke had hit his button. His eyes ... his eyes were possibly the thing he had the most control over, but where Sasuke was concerned his eyes lost their emptiness and blankness, becoming instead a window into his half-eroded soul.

At this, Itachi moved his fingers which were already resting on the side of Sasuke's head. He wove his fingers to the scalp and saw as his little brother psychically shivered. Not only was it possibly the closest human contact he had had for years, but it was soft and delicate and caring and _just_ _for_ _each other_. It meant something.

'If people see you'll know about it,' said Itachi. 'You know,' he took a deep breath then sighed. 'I intended to fix all of my mistakes, to tidy things up. If it had gone the way I had planned, with more chakra, I would have been here for a couple of months. I could have thanked Kisame … and if I were here for a little while longer … I could save you …'

'What do you mean 'save me'?' asked Sasuke, his cheeks burning.

'I would go to the Hokage … to your Sensei … and the girl with the flower name … and the Kyuubi-boy … I would help you mend the bonds.'

'But my bond is … _with_ _you_,' those last two words came out barely audible. If Itachi hadn't been practically hanging over Sasuke's face he wouldn't have heard them. 'It always has been.'

'I'm sorry, Sasu—' That phrase was like a habit never satisfied.

Itachi's apology was cut off by a hand that clasped over his mouth. Sasuke, with intrigue, felt the breath against his palm and fingers and realised he had never done that before. Sasuke nodded. He removed his hand slowly. _I know!_ he wanted to say. _I know._

He wanted to kiss him more than anything. But he had one thing to ask before.

'I have another question? Can … hnn … can you see me?' Sasuke asked sheepishly, looking away as if Itachi would scorn him for saying something so stupid.

But Itachi reached out his hand and laid it on Sasuke's cheek, coaxing his face back so that their eyes could meet again. Deep, onyx black met deep, onyx black. Both were transfixed by the sight of each others, having known no other eyes like it. Sasuke couldn't care for his reflection and Itachi didn't want to,so it was no surprise that they had stopped completely, as if suspended in time.

Itachi's gaze darted around Sasuke's features. They were taking in everything from the single strands of hair in his face, to the slight crease between his eyebrows, to the ever so discreet part of his lips.

Itachi's hand moved down from Sasuke's shoulder and brushed lightly across his chest, then down to his stomach. Neither of them gave it much thought until Itachi's hand reached that particular part of Sasuke – the part in his side just where his ribs ended and it was soft.

The moment went out of the window.

Sasuke let out a loud, clear laugh, and then snorted in a way that made his cheeks burn and he curled into a ball.

'Sasuke?!' asked Itachi, alarmed. 'Are you — wait — are you _giggling_?'

Wanting more of something so incredibly cute, Itachi's fingers flexed out again and prodded Sasuke in both of his sides. He had hit the spot. Sasuke let out another bout of beautiful laughter that rang out over the hills, despite the fact that he tried to muffle it with his hands.

Their tickling continued until Itachi was almost on top of his younger brother, pressing all the buttons.

Sasuke shot up at the first opportunity he got and began running for the trees. Itachi gave him a few seconds leeway before following in pursuit.

Soon, when Sasuke entered the sparse woods, he began weaving in and out of the trunks, making a complicated pattern. After a good few minutes Sasuke stopped, leaning against a particularly think tree, breathing heavily.

Then, for some unexplainable reason, his heart began pounding against his ribcage in a different kind of exhilaration. Panic. _Has he disappeared?! A clone can disappear at any moment!_

He stepped out and looked around, expecting to be left alone again. He didn't think he could handle the loneliness yet, it was a form of darkness that had been plaguing him ever since he was a child, and Itachi was not only the cure.

Just then Sasuke was grabbed around the waist and hoisted into the air. He was carried though the forest by someone running.

On breaking through the trees again, Sasuke was put down. He realised he was almost as tall as Itachi.

This time they found themselves in another field, this one smaller and more remote-looking. Somehow Sasuke knew they were even further away from anything and everything.

'Do you know where we are, little brother?' Itachi asked. Again, it was a question that Itachi already knew the answer to and Sasuke knew.

Sasuke shook his head, looking around. 'A vague memory …'

'Yes, I brought you here a few times before … it's beautiful … few people know about it ... it was a kind of secret place I would go to sometimes to think. Or to get away. Sometimes I brought you here when you passed out from training so hard. I liked to think that somehow we could leave everything behind, that somehow things would be different if we could just stay and never go back.'

The field was covered in sporadic blooms of white flowers waving among tall wild grass. Itachi trod down a patch in the middle of the field where the sunlight was streaming down undeterred.

Itachi sat with his hands behind him and Sasuke sat a fair distance away. It only remained a little awkward like that until - this time - Itachi broke the barrier by placing his hands on Sasuke in a way that told him those walls were ruined - dust, swept into a chest under lock and key.

Suddenly Sasuke felt warm breath in his ear and he froze at the closeness. His stomach was doing flips. He had known that from the beginning they were closer than normal; closer than they should be. He felt for Itachi like no one else, not like this; this was love.

Before Sasuke knew it Itachi had puts one of the white flowers in his hair, then he apologized.

'What are you sorry about this time?'

'I can't help it … '

Then Itachi kissed him – it was shy at first, but then Sasuke leaned into Itachi in a way that suggested he'd surrendered absolutely everything, not just the physicality.

And these weren't just any kisses; no one could have ever kissed Sasuke like this. This was the kind of kiss that he would remember for every day of his life then take to his grave – keep it safe and cherished and secret. It was the kind of kiss that had survived since the very beginning – from the first, a simply innocent peck to the forehead. Then the peck to the cheek. And then the not-so-accidental brush to the lips. It was a kiss that had survived since childhood, and they both knew in that moment that there was no other person in the world who could make each other feel this way.

Sasuke knew it would never go beyond a kiss. That was the way his brother did things. But perhaps this was different ...

Sasuke felt his hands move upwards into Itachi's hair, the hair-tie being forced further down and down his ponytail. Itachi put a hand on Sasuke's waist, the part just around from his ribs, his new favourite place. His other hand supported their combined weight, but eventually Itachi just let it go and he fell awkwardly backwards, Sasuke now completely on top of him.

They broke apart, gasping for air. Sasuke rearranged himself so that he was pressed closely against Itachi's body. The last time he had done this exact action he had been six, and his legs had been able to wrap around Itachi's waist, but now that was slightly unfeasible. So Sasuke nuzzled his head in the space between Itachi's neck and chest, an arm sprawled over his torso. Itachi moved his arm around to Sasuke's back and began lazily rubbing up and down his spine.

'Sasuke ... '

'Hhmm?'

Itachi whispered: 'I think somebody's watching us.'

Sasuke made to jump up but Itachi held him fast.

'_What_?' he snapped.

'Ssh,' Itachi said to the sky. 'It's okay. For some reason they're just watching. I don't think they don't mean us any harm.'

'Where are they? Who are they?'

'They're hidden in the trees. I don't know. It's probably best if we pretend we haven't realised. When we leave, we'll go back the way we came, they shouldn't follow us.'

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**AN:** Hey folks! Looks like there's going to be another chapter or two -- I didn't see that coming.


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